A blog of my seasonal and everyday thoughts on life and pagan spirituality

Coming back

I never decided to take a hiatus from blogging. Other things simply demanded my attention, and I let blogging slip by the wayside.

Since Ostara, Alban Eiler, the Spring Equinox, I have been feeling called to come back and start sharing through this medium again. As the earth began growing again I wanted to write down my thoughts and feelings and experiences that grow along with it. So it’s taken me a while, but I am back, and I hope to be sharing regularly here again.

A lot has happened in my life since I last posted here. I’ll share more about that as I get back into the swing of blogging, but my big news is- I got married! My husband and I had our wedding last year in June, a few days after Summer Solstice. (Of course I wanted to get married at the time of the Solstice because of my connection with that holiday- see my previous post.) We had a beautiful ceremony in the woods, surrounded by friends and family, blessed by sun and the spirits of pines and deer and sunflowers and bunnies. I know it sounds cliché to say, but it really was the best day of my life. I can’t believe we’re coming up on one year of marriage already! So I have gotten to spend the last year sharing married life with my soulmate, my best friend, the man of my dreams, the love of my life.

A few other new things that I’ll mention now. I have started the Bardic grade course through the Order of Bards, Ovates, and Druids. I have not been as regular with following the course as I’d like to be, so perhaps sharing some thoughts about it here will keep me more on track.

And in other course work, just this month I started a year-long herbal medicine apprenticeship with Sky House Yoga in Silver Spring, Maryland. I feel this course is very much in line with my Bardic course, in the sense that I am taking it primarily to deepen my relationship with the earth and with plants. One of the things we’re doing as part of the course is something called “plant dieting”, where we focus on ingesting a single plant for a period of time to build a deep knowledge of its physical effects and spirit. I think this course will make for interesting blog material.

Finally, in the past year I’ve developed a very regular tarot practice. Tarot is something that has drawn me for a very long time- I actually got my first deck when I was a teenager, but I never really learned to read with it and put the deck in storage for many years. But in the last year I dedicated some time to learning to read, and discovered that tarot is a) a life-long study and b) an immensely helpful tool in the spiritual and general life toolbox. I would call myself a devoted novice at this stage, so I will definitely be writing about that here.

Summer altar

Of course more has happened, and I’m sure there will be more catch-up posts. In the meantime, I’m glad to be back, feeling joyful in the season. Hello!